Chocolate does not cause acne. Nor do bugers, fries or pizzas.

But Jelly Beans will,…defo!

What The Fact?

In fact, there’s a whole bunch of foods that can cause acne, or acne vulgaris to give it its more embarrassing name!  It all hails back from the 50’s when it was assumed that because chocolate is very rich in fats and so is sebum.  Sebum is an oily kind of skin juice that your sebaceous glands pump out to protect your skin.  Turns out that’s a bit of a tenuous link since there was no proof,..at all!

So in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s scientists tried there very best to pin down anything it would seem that they could use to blame Hersheys for their moldy old crater faces.  After all the tests,..some of which even used radiation to track the fats in chocolate through the body they came back with nadda; none of the fat was present in the sebum.

So What Does Cause It?

There’s still tons of debate over this one but the most recent research points to foods that are high on the glycemic index.  It’s down to a sneaky biological row of falling dominoes in a way.  Cramming down two bags of Root Beer Jelly Belly Jelly Beans (which do rock) while you’re watching ‘Lost’ causes high your blood to overload with glucose, which fires off increased secretion of insulin which in turn causes a hyperplasia (proliferation of cells) in the skin and that is the biggest cause of acne.

Of course, that doesn’t really help anyone unless you know which foods are high on the glycemic index right?  I took a quick look and your search should start here if you’re having a bad time with acne.  I know I did.  The first time in your life that the opposite sex start to look attractive and mother nature blesses you with a face full of rosy barnacles.  Life’s a bowl of cherries ain’t it?